Inside The Bills

On two of their more recent goal to go opportunities the Bills were unable to punch the ball into the end zone for a touchdown. In Week 6 against Cincinnati, Thad Lewis was stopped short of the goal line on a fourth down rollout leading to a turnover on downs. Last week Jeff Tuel’s third-and-goal pass attempt went 100 yards the other way. Sunday against the Steelers however, could present far more favorable odds of finishing off such an opportunity with a touchdown.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are an average red zone defense as they’re allowing opponents to score touchdowns once in the red zone at better than 55 percent (15th). Their defense is also allowing opponents to average 3.47 yards per play in the red zone, which is the fifth-highest allowed in the league.

Furthermore the Steelers defense is at its worst in goal-to-go situations. When Pittsburgh’s opponents are in a goal to go situation they convert with a touchdown 75 percent of the time. That percentage ranks Pittsburgh 26th in goal-to-go defense.

When the situation is first-and-goal at the five-yard line or closer Pittsburgh opponents have scored every single time this season, making the Steelers one of the worst goal-to-go defenses in the NFL.

Of course the Bills offense is 31st in the league in goal-to-go scoring converting just over 46 percent of the time (46.2%), so one side of the ball in these situations has got to give. Fred Jackson is hoping it’s Pittsburgh.

“We haven’t been consistent in what we want to get done,” said Jackson. “We’ve got to focus on that this week and get that taken care of. Any time we get in the red zone, we need to score touchdowns. That’s something we said we wanted to get done and we haven’t done that.”